


The stray on the roof

by Momuno



Category: Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: Angst, Beej finds a home, Canon-Typical Behavior, Canon-Typical Humor, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-Typical themes, Family, Fluff, Friendship, Juno is a bad mother, Multi, Tags are gonna be added in future chapters, because I am soft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-27 03:13:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20038984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Momuno/pseuds/Momuno
Summary: As it turned out a demon  - a literal demon - could survive a sandworm attack. Which meant that Juno was back and she was pissed. On a totally unrelated note, she was also missing a leg.Set a little over 1 year after the events of the musical.





	The stray on the roof

**Author's Note:**

> _Hey ^^_  
_ Thank you so much for clicking on this story. I hope that you are going to enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing and planning it. This is my first fanfiction in this fandom, and I must admit, that I am a little worried about making the characters a little OOC. If that happens, please let me know. I’m always open for constructive criticism and won’t get angry about people telling me my mistakes :D_  
_ I know that I write a lot of run-on sentences and I am very sorry about that. I try to get a little better with that. But I also like a few run-on sentences, so I need to find a good middle ground. I'm also still getting the hang of writing conversations xD_  
  
_ There are going to be OCs as secondary characters in this Story, but I try to keep them at a minimum. Instead, I’m going to use secondary characters from the Cartoon-series, at times. At the end of every chapter, I will tell which characters are my own OCs and which are from the show. Just so that there is no confusion in that matter._  
_ This story has nothing to do with the Cartoon (besides the borrowed characters) or the Movie. It is solely set after the musical. So if you know what is happening in the show, you can read this without any further background knowledge :D_  
  
_ Last but not least, if you have any questions or just want to talk to me you can do so on Tumblr or Discord (I am better reachable on Tumblr though)_  
_ Just write me @ [Beetle-cat](https://beetle-cat.tumblr.com/) I am glad to answer everything you throw my way [sometimes it may take a little because I am a struggling university student, but there will be an answer ^^]_  
_ If you want my Discord handle instead please also contact me on Tumblr first ^^ Just so I know what is going on :D_
> 
> _And now I wish you a lot of fun with the first Chapter._
> 
> _"If something is there, you can only see it with your eyes open, but if it isn't there, you can see it just as well with your eyes closed. That's why imaginary things are often easier to see than real ones." _
> 
> **\- Norton Juster (The Phantom Tollbooth)**

Had anyone asked Lydia what she associated with the Connecticut Countryside, back when she had first moved there, her answer would have been something along the lines of _uneventful, dull, stale_. Any and every synonym for the world _boring_ really. But now, a little over a year later the only word that came to her mind was _home_. This rural town, in the middle of nowhere, had turned into her home.  
Back in New York, where life was bustling and rustling and every day brought a new onslaught of impressions, Lydia had felt like her entire existence had been drained of color. There was no happiness, more than that, no emotion at all, left inside her. In the six months after her mother had died and before her broken family had moved to Connecticut Lydia had often asked herself whether she would ever be able to feel happy again, whether she would ever escape the sensation of being utterly lost. But then Barbara and Adam and even Delia had come into her life, she and her father had managed to reconnect and even though none of these people could ever fill the hole her mother had left behind, they had at least shown her that she didn’t have to be alone. That it was okay to lean on others. Sure, she still felt sad every now and again but having someone to talk to about all of this, was at least helping.

More than that, after opening up to her family - and with a few pushes from Barbara - Lydia had finally managed to open up to her classmates as well. By that point, she had already established herself as somewhat of an outsider, but two girls in her class had taken her under their metaphorical wings. Bertha and Prudence - both of them weren't especially popular themselves, but who really cared about that anyways - had started their quest in befriending Lydia by letting her sit at their table during lunch, asking her whether she wanted to work with them during PE. or if they had to work in groups in class. It had taken some effort and even more time until Lydia had finally agreed to spend time with them outside of school. Lydia could really be thankful for their stubbornness. If they had decided that she wasn't worth trying she would have ended up on her own. Still, even after almost a year of actual friendship, Lydia wouldn't call either of them her best friend. The bond the two other girls shared with each other was so much deeper than hers with either one of them and Lydia was still distancing herself when she felt like everything was just a little bit too much. So she really didn't mind being the third party. It was better to be a third wheel, than no wheel at all. And yet maybe, she thought, it would be nice to have someone she could call her _best_ friend.  
Yes, she had Adam and Barbara, whom she loved with all her heart, but both of them were more parents than friends. Especially since they had taken over the whole 'being strict' thing, when her Dad wasn't around. At least they tried. It was still a little hard for them to actually say no to Lydia. Something the girl only sometimes used to her own advantage.

"Miss Deetz", the sharp voice of her math teacher ripped Lydia out of her thoughts. Turning her head away from the window and towards the front of the classroom, Lydia noticed - not for the first time - that Mrs. Carson looked like she had crawled out of one of these comic books where teachers were always depicted as stuck up demons, who would rather die than smile. Lydia would say that she was one of the last people that judged others solely on behalf of their appearance, but with her math teacher even she had to admit, that expectation and experience, fitted perfectly.  
"Miss Deetz, since you obviously don't need to pay attention to this class, would you mind telling us the answer to question three?"  
Lydia was by no means bad in school, but being called out in front of the entire class, all of whom were now staring at her, and not being 100 percent sure what question Mrs. Carson was even referring to, left the young girl in what could only be described as 'deer in headlights' mode.  
Mr. Carson scrunched her nose up and huffed slightly.  
"I am very disappointed. I expect better of you. Now, who can answer the question?”  
The class resumed und Lydia felt Prudence's small hand land, in a display of subtle comfort, on her shoulder, while she slumped in her seat. Great, angry teachers were really the last thing she needed in her life, right now.

The remaining hours of the school day appeared to tick by in slow motion and Lydia sighed a breath of relief when the final bell allowed her to throw her books into the old bag Adam had given her.  
Bidding her friends goodbye, Lydia proceeded to start the journey home. It was a cold day and the wind hitting her, while she rode her bike towards the house on the hill, made her glad that she had listened to Barbara for once and taken a jacket, even though it was almost summer already. The sky was grey and there was no way any of the warming rays of sunlight would make their way through the thick blanket of clouds anytime soon. The weather forecast had promised a lot of rain all through the last week, but so far it had only drizzled a little bit. However, Lydia wouldn't be surprised if it actually started to pour any minute. Which was exactly the reason she tried to get home as fast as possible.  
Lydia had fallen in love with the house on the hill that loomed over the little town. She knew what the younger kids in her school whispered behind her back. That the old walls were haunted. That Lydia was a witch and that she would let the 'green-haired monster man' eat you if you ever ended up on her bad side. The rumor had started with the girl scouts and while it wasn't totally wrong, after all, the house on the hill was in fact haunted - by extremely friendly ghosts, but nobody needed to know that - most of it was a little far fetched. Sure 'the green-haired monster man', even though looking back Lydia would hardly describe him as a monster, had existed there but neither was Lydia a witch nor would she ever allow that creepy old guy to actually eat a child. To be perfectly honest, she didn't even think, that he would want to.  
So much had happened in this one year she now lived in that house. So many memories were already tied to the different rooms, in the end, Barbara had won and they now looked a lot like they did, when the Deetz first moved again. At least most of them. As sort of a wedding present, the Maitlands had allowed Delia to at least decorate most of the house like she wanted to, except the attic. The attic was Adam’s and Barbara's little paradise and Lydia loved spending time up there. So much stuff was crammed into the different corners, that there was hardly a time, where she wouldn't find something new. That's also how she had found the old messenger back that Adam had finally gifted her as a present for her 16th birthday.  
She could tell that he had had somewhat of a hard time, letting go of it. But as a ghost, he had no use for the brown back and - as Lydia had heard him tell Barbara later - the smile Lydia had given him had been worth it.

Lydia was only about 50 meters away from the front door when something made her stop in her tracks. Something about the house was wrong. It wasn't the weathercock spinning in the strong wind that made Lydia shiver slightly. It wasn't the curtain of the attic window, that fell back into place, meaning that either Adam or Barbara had noticed her arrival. It was something different. Something that didn't fit into the picture. Something that gave Lydia the unmistakable feeling that she was being watched. Whatever she was looking at, it was looking back at her. And from the unmistakable way that Lydia had just stopped moving, it probably knew that she was aware of its presence.  
Closing her eyes for a second Lydia decided to take another approach to the entire subject. It was a vain hope that maybe the second she opened her eyes again they would immediately travel to whatever was up there on the roof, that didn’t belong. Just the same way it sometimes worked with these wired ‘find the difference’ games. Lydia counted to ten, all the while trying to imagine what the house normally looked like. Then, when she had reached the last number in her counting she tore her eyes open.  
Almost immediately the young girl understood what, or more fittingly whom, she had noticed while staring at the house. Really, now that she knew where she had to look he stood out like a sore thumb. She had thought that finding out what was making her so uncomfortable would maybe calm her down a little bit. But the black and white striped figure did exactly the opposite to her.

Lydia dropped her bike and sprinted to the front door.  
_This is not happening, this is not happening_. She knew her inner mantra was not changing anything about what she had seen, but it was still better than falling into a full-blown panic mode. What if he had come back to hurt her family? Yes, they had parted on okay terms, but that didn’t have to mean anything. From experience, Lydia knew that that creepy old guy had more mood swings than a pregnant woman. What if he had finally decided to take his revenge. They… no, she had killed him after all. He had barely lived a few seconds when Lydia had stabbed him with bad art. What if he wasn’t as forgiving as he seemed to be, back when it actually happened?  
Lydia threw open the front door, trying to not flinch when she saw the hurt look in Barbara's eyes - she had come down to greet her - when she stormed past her and up the stairs.  
"We need to get to the attic! Now.", she yelled down. And even though Barbara couldn't possibly know what Lydia was going on about, she was on her heels in a matter of seconds.  
"Lydia, what is going on?"  
But Lydia didn't answer the worried call of her ghostly adoptive mother. Somewhat out of breath but not any less worried, she arrived in the attic. Kicking the door open with enough force to make it hit the wall. Adam must have had heard the commotion coming from downstairs, for the next thing Lydia knew, a pair of soft hands had come to rest on her shoulders. Making her calm down almost instantly.  
Lydia let her eyes travel through the attic. Besides the three of them no living or, well, dead thing seemed to scatter around. Maybe her mind had played a trick on her. Maybe the day had just been a little more stressful than she had thought.  
"Dear, please tell us what is going on." Barbara sounded worried and Lydia really couldn't blame her. She had acted pretty out of it, hadn't she?

"It's nothing. I just thought…", she hesitated. Was it right to tell the two? Would she just unnecessarily worry them? Then again, they had a strict 'no secrets' protocol. And it wasn't even that bad. Lydia laughed softly, trying to mask the insecurity still remaining in her chest.  
"I must have been daydreaming. I thought I saw Beetlejuice on the roof." It was too late when Lydia realized her mistake. They had decided to never say his name again. Only three times would do the trick, but once was probably enough to get his intention. The young girl felt her eyes grow wide and a cold shiver made its way down her spine, when she heard the soft _'Tap' 'Tap' 'Tap'_ of knuckles against glass. She didn't want to turn around. Didn't want to see the guy she had desperately tried to forget. If she didn't acknowledge him, maybe he would just disappear. It was a childish thought. The same thought that made kids believe they were safe from the monsters in their room if they just stayed under the covers of their blankets. But real demons didn't just go away because you decided to ignore them. Barbara and Adam hadn't said a word since the first tap had come from the window behind Lydia. The same window she had used to get onto the roof when she had considered ending her own life, so many months ago. Lydia swallowed and then she turned around.

Beetlejuice looked almost exactly like he had when Lydia had first encountered him. Same purple hair, same smile plastered on his face, same striped suit. When he noticed that he finally had the attention of everyone inside the room, his smile grew a few sizes, before he breathed his rancid breath against the glass, only to draw something in the now foggy window, that was probably supposed to be a heart but had more resemblance to a very lopsided peach.  
To Lydia's surprise, he didn't appear to be angry. On the contrary. He seemed almost happy to see them. Seeing the almost familiar glint of glee in his eyes made Lydia think of the time the two of them had the house practically to themselves for three days. Sure looking back she hadn't been acting very majorly, but they did have had fun. A lot of fun. An almost, but not totally involuntarily smile, started creeping onto her face, while she recalled the memory. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to just talk to him again.  
But before Lydia could act, Barbara had walked up to the window and had, with an angry huff, pulled the curtain close. Deliberately ignoring the scandalized "HEY!" coming from the other side of the window.

"What is this… this" Barbara was clearly searching for a word that fitted the situation, but Lydia already knew that she couldn't answer the question.  
"What is this thing doing here?", she finally spat out. Lydia shrugged. She didn't know. Hell, she didn't even know if she wanted to actually know.  
"I'm sure that he just wants to mess with us for a while." Adam, for the record, didn't sound sure at all.  
"Now? After over a year?"  
"Maybe he got bored…"  
"Well and maybe he wants to send us to the netherworld, have you thought of that Adam."  
Adam bit his lip, at his wife's angry voice. Both he and Lydia knew that she wasn't actually angry with him. Just frustrated with the situation and probably scared. Lydia couldn't blame her. Now that she didn't see his bright smile anymore the thoughts from before had come back. Yes the both of them had had fun together, but he had also tried to kill her family. Yes, he had, in the end, saved them from his own Mother, but he had also forced Lydia into marrying him.  
"Maybe he is here to take revenge." She could feel the eyes of her adoptive ghost parents rest on her.  
"I did kill him after all." Lydia had barely finished the sentence when she heard the cackling coming from the window.

"Maybe you should ask him, because as cute as this is, you're all totally wrong."

**Author's Note:**

> _I must say that this chapter is a little shorter than I had originally planned, but it just felt right to end it at this point._  
_ There is also a lot less Beej in it than what I would want but there is going to be more of him in future chapters. A lot more XD_  
_ Now back to the character thing I mentioned above._  
_ While Mrs. Carson is my go-to Teacher-character [no I don't always use her, only when the character is fitting and not very important for the overall story ^^]_
> 
> _Prudence and Bertha are characters from the Beetlejuice Cartoon ^^_  
_ Disclaimer: I am not earning any money with this nor are most of the characters mine. This is purely for fun._
> 
> _Once again, if you want to talk to me, you can reach me on Tumblr @ [Beetle-cat](https://beetle-cat.tumblr.com/)_


End file.
